Top 164 Quotes & Sayings by Sharon Gannon

Be a communicator, not a self-righteous proselytizer or preacher. Many people are only concerned with expressing themselves, which isn't necessarily communication.

Yoga practices shift our identity away from the ego-personality and its struggles so that we can begin to reconnect with the essential nature of our being, which is bliss.

When we have a choice it is always best to choose kindness. Veganism is simply the kinder choice.

Human beings have been waging war and destroying the environment for long time. Just because it has been going on for a long time and become an unquestioned habit, does that mean it should be allowed to continue.

It is a testament to the effectiveness of advertising campaigns funded by the animal-user industries that a diet that is bad for us and harmful to the planet is thought of as "normal" and a diet that promotes health, happiness, and well-being is thought of as alternative, abnormal, or faddish. In fact, these days it is relatively easy to find vegetarian options in many restaurants and supermarkets, though you may have to ask.

Live with the anticipation that something incredible might happen at any time.

Through the practices of yoga, we discover that concern for the happiness and well being of others, including animals, must be an essential part of our own quest for happiness and well being. The fork can be a powerful weapon of mass destruction or a tool to create peace on Earth.

In the United States, the average is two children per family, while in Africa it is five children per family. On the surface, the statistic seems to indicate that Africans are having way too many kids and are taxing the Earth's resources, while American kids are born into families who are able to take care of them. However, the average American child consumes roughly the same resources as fifteen African children. So when an American family says they only have two children, they are actually consuming the resources of an African family of thirty children!

Be clear in your mind what you want the outcome of your communication to achieve. If your aim is more than just to vent your anger towards a meat eater and you sincerely want that person to be a kinder more compassionate being, then you must start by seeing them as a kind and compassionate person. If you are unable to see them as kind and compassionate, then how dare you demand them to see themselves that way.

We are the only animals who steal and drink the milk from other species.

Human beings are Earthlings and as Earthlings are connected to every other living being on this planet.

Our breath is connected to the air that every being breathes. By breathing consciously, we acknowledge our communion with all of life.

We have become so addicted to our greed-driven habits that we have lost our moral compass and don't know what is right and wrong.

Many genetically "altered" fish escape from the confines of the crowded floating concentration camps to mingle and mate with their wild fish cousins, causing horrible and irreversible damage to wild species.

What we do as an individual affects the whole world.

If you practice Yoga for small, selfish reasons, you will remain the same, bound by your beliefs about what you can and cannot do. Let go and offer your effort to limitless potential. Dedicate yourself to the happiness of all beings.

To be an environmentalist is to care about the environment and care about life on planet Earth.

Fishing is taking a huge toll on the planet's ecosystem.

All breathing beings are spiritual; this includes everyone who breathes, whether they are animals or humans, carnivores or vegetarians.

The best way to uplift our own lives is to do all we can to uplift the lives of others.

It has been an obsession of human beings to create a hierarchy that places the human species on top and lumps all the "other animals" together beneath us. The resulting "speciesism" allows us to look upon animals as less deserving of all manner of rights and considerations than humans. To support this lower status, humans have argued that animals act instinctually; don't have souls; don't feel physical pain like we do; and lack self-consciousness, cognitive intelligence, emotional feelings, morality, and ethics.

Sunlight is essential to the body's ability to absorb calcium from the food you are eating. Make sure you receive adequate vitamin D every day through sunlight. About fifteen to twenty minutes of sun on the face and hands is usually enough for most of us.

Life begins with an inhale and ends with an exhale. ln between that inhale and that exhale is our life.

The practice of yoga allows us to become more conscious of our own physical existence and how significant we really are.

There are atoms of air in your lungs that were once in the lungs of everyone who has ever lived. In essence, we are breathing (inspiring) one another.

You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state.

The raising of animals for food and all that it entails is the single most destructive force impacting our planet's fragile ecosystems. Our planet simply cannot sustain the greed of billions of human beings who are eating other animals.

The way we treat animals is the root cause of all the human suffering in the world, from poverty, starvation, disease, and war to lack of clean air and water, not to mention all the varied forms of human emotional and spiritual suffering.

Whatever you want to have happen to you make it happen for others now and eventually but inevitably you will reap the seeds you have sown.

See the other person's potential for kindness and bolster your own expression of kindness. If you see them in a negative way, the power of your perception will only help to keep them that way as you polarize yourself from them, assuming a superior role, seeing yourself as the good guy and them as the bad guy.

It is a fact that the ecological devastation of the planet can be traced to the consumption of meat and dairy, which contributes to water, soil, and air pollution as well as global warming and the mass extinction of many species of plant and animal forms.

If you want to know if someone is a "spiritual being" ask yourself, "Is he or she breathing?" If the answer is yes, then you know that you are in the presence of a spiritual being.

If you want people to listen to you, then be willing to listen to them.

Eating a vegetarian diet can contribute more to saving ourselves and the planet than any other single effort.

Om Schooled is the perfect manual for anyone who wants to start teaching yoga to kids. This is not just a theoretical book—it is a step-by-step manual. Sarah Herrington shares the wisdom she has gained from her day-to-day experiences, for many years, teaching all ages of children yoga in the New York School system.

All living beings are spiritual beings because all of life breathes. Breath is an indication that spirit is present.

The enemy of the spirit is the selfish ego, which thinks that happiness can be gained through causing unhappiness and disharmony to others. In many ancient languages, the word for enemy means "one who falls out of rhythm; one who is not working in harmony with the larger group."

In fact, numerous scientific laboratory tests and field observations have led to the conclusion that animals are conscious, intelligent, emotional beings. They are not machines and truly feel physical pain when it is inflicted upon them. They are capable of experiencing a wide range of emotions, including loneliness, embarrassment, sadness, longing, depression, anxiety, panic, and fear, as well as joy, relief, surprise, happiness, contentment, and peace.

Large factory trawlers indiscriminately scrape and haul up everything from the ocean floor, along with everyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the nets. Roughly one-third of what is dragged in is not profitable fish, but other sea animals, including turtles, whales, dolphins, seals, and seabirds. These beings are referred to by the fishing industry as "by-catch." Severely traumatized and wounded, these animals are subsequently thrown back into the ocean, dead or dying.

Communication implies communing, having a shared experience with another, not "talking at" or "talking down to" someone.

Vegan food is not only good for you, the animals, and the planet, but cooking vegan can be simple, easy, and fun.

Yoga is many things to many people, but in its full potential the practice of yoga can provide the means to transform suffering into happiness and Suzanne Bryant's film YOGA IS shows us this path.

Don't try to do this by yourself: to become a good yogi you need a teacher. Find a teacher you can bow to, who can teach you how to be kind - how to serve others - because the key to enlightenment lies in that. Be humble, work hard, study and practice. Chant the Name of God, do japa and meditate, every day.

If it were possible to live without causing harm to any living being at all, then indeed we might well choose not to eat carrots or other vegetables. But that is not possible - merely by being alive, we necessarily cause harm to many, many beings: we step on them inadvertently, we breathe them in without noticing, we kill them when we brush our teeth or wash our bodies, etc.

We can't have happiness if we cause others unhappiness.

The way you treat others determines the way others treat you; the way others treat you determines the way you see yourself; the way you see yourself determines who you are.

Don't wait for a better world. Start now to create a world of harmony and peace. It is up to you, and it always has been. You may even find the solution at the end of your fork.

To be alive is to be breathing.

What we do to others will come back to us.

We create the world we live in. If we want to change what we don't like in the world, we must start by changing what we don't like about ourselves.

We ourselves can never be free if we rob others of their freedom.

Enlightenment is the realization of the oneness of being, where otherness disappears.

The ridicule you may endure from others when you speak up for animals can help you to hone your skills, enabling you to become better at articulating your message in an informed, compassionate, and communicative way.

Some meat eaters defend meat eating by pointing out that it is natural: in the wild, animals eat one another. The animals that end up on our breakfast, lunch, and dinner plates, however, aren't those who normally eat other animals. The animals we exploit for food are not the lions and tigers and bears of the world. For the most part, we eat the gentle vegan animals. However, on today's farms, we actually force them to become meat eaters by making them eat feed containing the rendered remains of other animals, which they would never eat in the wild.

Inspiration pushes me out of my tight intellectual comfort zone and into humility, the wonderous state of not knowing. From this place of zero, limitless possibilities seem to arise.

Worry is a prayer for something you don't want.

Don't expect others to change. Instead, take on the project and see if you can become the change you want to see in the world. Try your best to let go of anger, blame and seeing yourself as a victim.

Because we lack sharp claws, aren't very fast on our feet, and aren't exactly endowed with lightning reflexes, it would be very difficult if not impossible for us to run down an animal, catch it with our bare hands, and tear through its fur and skin in order to eat it. Biologically, we are designed to be frugivorous herbivores eating mainly fruits, seeds, roots, and leaves.

What we see in the world around us is just a reflection of what is inside of us.

Farm animals, like dairy cows - who by nature are vegans - are routinely force-fed fish to increase their weight and milk production.